Seen on Screen: ESPN Heads to Spring Training; NBC Goes Behind the Scenes With ‘PBC’ Fighters

Written by Jarrel Harris, Editorial Assistant

ESPN will swing into spring with comprehensive coverage of 2015 Major League Baseball Spring Training from Florida’s Grapefruit League and Arizona’s Cactus League, starting the week of Feb. 23. Coverage will include the SportsCenter Spring Training Tour, which will visit all 30 MLB Clubs. SportsCenter and Baseball Tonight commentators will provide insights and analysis on each MLB Club, plus interviews with key stars and managers.

Additionally, ESPN reporters Pedro Gomez and Britt McHenry will visit several Spring Training sites each in Florida and Arizona, respectively, for on-site reports. All SportsCenter Spring Training Tour updates will begin each day during the 9 a.m. ET SportsCenter.

ESPN’s Spring Training coverage will also include a full slate of games, featuring two prime-time telecasts, beginning with the Philadelphia Phillies visiting the New York Yankees on Thursday, Mar. 19, at 7 p.m. Additionally, appearances by the Boston Red Sox, Atlanta Braves, Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim and Detroit Tigers round out the schedule. Sunday Night Baseball’s Dan Shulman, along with analysts Curt Schilling and John Kruk and reporter Buster Olney, will call the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim at Chicago Cubs game on Thursday, Mar. 26 at 7 p.m.

…ESPN Films announced a new primetime special, It’s Not Crazy, It’s Sports, directed by Academy Award-winning director Errol Morris (The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara, Thin Blue Line, The Unknown Known) which will air Sunday, March 1 at 9 p.m. ET on ESPN. Evolving ESPN’s long-running brand campaign of the same name, the special broadcast consists of six short films that explore the inspiring, dramatic and unexpected things in sports that capture the experience of being a fan.  All of the pieces are directed and personally introduced by Morris.   Following the ESPN premiere, each individual short film will then make its online debut throughout that week on Grantland.com as part of its “Errol Morris Week,” a week of coverage and storytelling centered around Errol, his work, and this new series.

…NBCSN debuts PBC: Corner to Corner this Wednesday, Feb. 25 at 11 p.m. ET.  The first program is a one-hour show looking into the lives of boxers Keith Thurman, Robert Guerrero, Adrien Broner and John Molina Jr., as they prepare for their bouts in the primetime debut of the PBC on NBC,  on Saturday, March 7 at 8:30 p.m. ET live from the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.

The PBC: Corner to Corner specials featuring in-depth profiles of the boxers will air on NBCSN leading into each of NBC’s primetime PBC shows.

…The YES Network will televise 20 New York City FC matches during their historic inaugural 2015 Major League Soccer season, beginning with the Saturday, March 21st New York City FC-at-Colorado match at 4:00 pm ET.

YES will air a special season-opening pre-game show at 3:30 pm ET on March 21st, before the Colorado match.  All New York City FC matches televised by YES will be streamed live via the FOX Sports GO app to authenticated YES viewers whose operators have streaming deals with YES (currently Cablevision and Time Warner Cable).

…NBC Sports Ventures and Red Bull Media House announced the 2015 television schedule for the Red Bull Signature Series, featuring 20 hours of coverage of the most progressive collection of action sports events in the world. Sal Masekela, the definitive voice in action sports, will host the Red Bull Signature Series for the fourth consecutive year.

… KlowdTV launched beIN SPORTS on its legal streaming platform in the United States. With this announcement, KlowdTV  is the only provider that offers Spanish La Liga, Italian Serie A, Ligue 1 and many more without a cable subscription.